PTC and TLC to offer free training seminars

The Literary Consultancy and Publishing Training Centre are to offer three free evening seminars on key aspects of publishing.

The Literary Consultancy and Publishing Training Centre are to offer three free evening seminars on key aspects of publishing.

The seminars will cover copy-editing, re-writing and substantive editing, and proofreading. The sessions will be held at TLC's London base, the Free Word Centre, on 13th, 20th, and 27th March 2018. Each session will present an overview of the skills and knowledge required to undertake these key processes, with short practical exercises to give a taste of the work itself.

Priority will be given to applicants from marginalised backgrounds including those from BAME, LGBTQ and other under-represented groups, those with disabilities, and those on low income.

The participants on the What is Proofreading? and What is Copy-Editing? seminars will be given six months' free access to the corresponding PTC e-Learning Modules, and all participants will be given a voucher offering 50% discount on the cost of any PTC one-day or two-day classroom course. Applications for tickets can be made to TLC's director Aki Schilz at aki@literaryconsultancy.co.uk and are limited to 30 per session.

The initiative is part of TLC's and PTC's mutual commitment to improving inclusivity in the publishing industry, with a focus on the editorial workforce. This follows both the Spread the Word-commissioned Writing the Future report, highlighting the lack of cultural diversity within the UK publishing industry, and findings from the latest bookcareers.com survey, which indicate that more than 90% of the publishing workforce identify as white British.

TLC director Aki Schilz said: “We are delighted to announce this important new partnership with the PTC, whose commitment to editorial excellence is very much in line with TLC's steady eye on literary values. The industry is seeing a real groundswell of important initiatives supporting writers from all backgrounds, but without a change in the diversity of champions working within the industry itself, the scale of change overall is unlikely to be enough to make the kind of difference needed to create an environment in which the literature we are reading truly reflects the richness of life as we know it.

"We hope that by offering this professional development opportunity, we might inspire some of the editors of the future, who will be working on, developing, and commissioning new writing, whether in-house or at the helms of their own as-yet unimagined new publishing platforms, bringing great literature to as many readers as possible."